René Meulensteen completed the £11m signing of the Olympiakos striker Kostas Mitroglou, along with the loan of Lewis Holtby from Tottenham Hotspur, on a frenetic deadline day at Fulham. Themanager also signed John Heitinga on a free transfer from Everton, while he raided his former club Manchester United for the young midfielders Ryan Tunnicliffe and Larnell Cole.

Meulensteen will make Mitroglou the focal point of his team, having allowed Dimitar Berbatov to leave for Monaco. Berbatov's Fulham contract was due to expire in June and he has signed with the French club for the remainder of the season. Monaco have lost the striker Radamel Falcao to a serious knee injury.

Berbatov' has cut a disgruntled figure in recent weeks, with his agent, Emil Dantchev, having made it clear at the beginning of December that the Bulgarian wanted a move. The 33-year-old has endured a frustrating season, in contrast to his productive 2012-13 campaign for Fulham, and he felt that he needed a fresh challenge.

Fulham have been lifted by their arrivals, who supplemented the earlier loan purchases of Clint Dempsey and William Kvist from Seattle Sounders and Stuttgart respectively, with Mitroglou the headline signing. Fulham have only ever paid more for one player – Steve Marlet, the striker, who cost £11.5m from Lyon in 2001.

Mitroglou, 25, has been in prolific form this season, with 14 goals in 12 league matches for Olympiakos and three in five Champions League ties, all of them coming in the group phase win at Anderlecht, when he became the first Greek player to score a hat-trick in the competition.

Mitroglou, who has eight goals in 28 appearances for his country, has swapped the continuation of Olympiakos' Champions League adventure - they face Manchester United in the last 16 - for Fulham's relegation battle. The club sit second from bottom in the Premier League and are saddled with comfortably the worst goal difference in the division.

Mitroglou said that he consulted Fulham's Greece midfielder, Giorgos Karagounis, before he signed on a four-and-a-half-year contract. "I'm here because I want to fulfil the club's targets," Mitroglou said. "I was really flattered that they wanted me so badly. René Meulensteen explained to me how he works and I am really looking forward to working with him."

Holtby struggled under Tim Sherwood at Tottenham and he has been attracted by the prospect of regular football at Fulham in his favoured central attacking midfield role. The German, who scored the winning goal for Tottenham at Fulham in December, trained with his new teammates for the first time on Friday and he could make the squad for Saturday's visit of Southampton.

Meulensteen, who also moved Philippe Senderos to Valencia on a permanent deal and brought in Heitinga, the Holland centre-half, to bolster a defence that has been shaky all season. He also gave the centre-half, Aaron Hughes, to Queens Park Rangers for the rest of the season, to repay Rangers' gesture in agreeing to terminate Adel Taarabt's season-long loan at Craven Cottage. Meulensteen did not want Taarabt any more and his Rangers counterpart, Harry Redknapp, did not want him back. Taarabt has signed on loan for Milan.

Meulensteen has taken Tunnicliffe, who has been on loan at Ipswich Town, and Cole on permanent contracts. The pair are under-21 players and so do not take up places on the club's 25-man senior squad list.

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About this article

Fulham show attacking intentions with £11m deal for Kostas Mitroglou

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 17.10 EST on Friday 31 January 2014.
A version appeared on p8 of the Sport section of the Guardian
on Friday 31 January 2014.
It was last modified at 01.00 EDT on Tuesday 3 June 2014.
It was first published at 14.39 EST on Friday 31 January 2014.